2002 Best of Denver Winners

In 2002, Westword published its nineteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best New Festival (Frozen Dead Guy Days took the chill off March in Nederland) to Best Start for a New Neighborhood (the Millennium Bridge was beginning to rise above Riverfront Park) to the Best Taco (the editorial pick was Jack-n-Grill, and for the first time ever, readers gave the nod to a local outfit rather than Taco Bell!). But the real winner that year was the Best Place to Dress Like a Cowboy: Rockmount Ranch Wear.

For decades — and we mean decades — the Weil family had been running its wholesale business out of an old warehouse on Wazee Street, specializing in Western shirts with the snap buttons invented by Jack A. Weil, pictured, the company’s founder who’d just marked his hundredth birthday. And to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks, the Weil family — Jack A., son Jack B. and grandson Steve — celebrated by opening a retail store in their building, letting the whole town in on the party. Six years later, Jack B. has passed on, but Jack A. still goes to work every day — and thanks to a renovation supervised by Steve, Rockmount’s now the Best-Looking Place to Dress Like a Cowboy, too. Yee-haw!

If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters.